It turns out I'm not alone in the wilderness, preaching against location-awareness for mobile advertising.
AD AGE has a piece today from Dave Curry, interactive director of digital agency POP, who points to some of the several pitfalls I've talked about over the last few years. My beef has largely been about drowning in location-based offers, but as Curry also points out, it's also about drowning in an exorbitant number of apps, many of which are increasingly cross referencing even more apps.
I'll say it again: The minute, the moment, the nano-second you or I are walking down the street and get pinged by 30 different companies with 30 different offers based on where we might be standing at any point in time, and it's all going to get very old, very fast.
But there are location-based models that will work, and work well. As I explained at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit last week (and in my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, which comes out April 28), a model like this will delight consumers.
Say you walk into the Gap (or any store). You turn on an app and instantly receive updates and offers based on your stated preference or past purchase history. If you like, you can shoot that information to a handset in the store clerk's hands so they can better serve you.
You might get an offer like "Hello, Mr. Mathieson. If you liked those jeans you bought last month, you're going to love these shirts" - complete with an image and a map to where the product can be found in the store.
Wave the phone over the 2d barcode to access shopper reviews and, when you go into the dressing room, snap a photo of yourself wearing the garment in the mirror to instantly transmit it to your desired soc-nets for instant, real-time feedback.
Should you like the shirt and the feedback you get, you simply walk out the door. A new fangled theft detection device is disabled, and the transaction happens instantly thanks the credit card you've entered on the web interface for the app. You never dig for cash, swipe a card, write a check - or stand in line.
This model puts the consumer in control of the engagement, and uses location as a value. And it's coming faster than you think.
Read more, here.
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"... Witty, Insightful, Dynamic and Highly Inspiring ..."
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